2024-05-01
Reacting to the National Cabinet communique, Greens spokesperson on Women and Leader in the Senate Larissa Waters said:
“What a deeply underwhelming response today from our nation’s leaders. The calls by tens of thousands rallying over the weekend, and from frontline support services for many years asking for adequate funding to meet demand, were ignored.
“The government announced $925 million over five years - but it’s not for frontline services. It’s to help women reach out to support services, but with those services already drastically underfunded, this announcement will simply increase demand on an already stretched sector.
“Where is the funding for those frontline support services to meet demand? The sector has called for $1 billion per year to be able to help everyone who seeks it, and the federal government is providing just under half that. Nothing about today’s announcement fixes that woeful underfunding.
“Today’s announcement merely makes an existing program that has been plagued with maladministration and delay, permanent. To add insult to injury, the funding for leaving violence announced today won’t even flow until 1 July 2025!
“The pittance for women’s safety today after 50 billion to Defence announced last week is an indictment on the government’s priorities.
“Nothing for frontline services. Nothing for housing. No new money for prevention. No DV death toll collected by government instead of volunteers. No declaration that violence against women is a national emergency. No increase to income support to help survivors flee. Nothing to help services inform police about high risk perpetrators. What a disgraceful missed opportunity today’s national cabinet was.”